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Posts Tagged ‘chickweed’

This is my favorite time of the year for gathering wild greens on the mainland. My wild salads were superb and I could gather all I needed for supporting my liver, blood, and excitement for new beginnings. It is a beautiful verdant time of the year with so many incredible foods to harvest.

It is a glorious time to be out in nature, and connect with her awakening from her winter rest. So many gifts she is offering right now for your health and enjoyment.
Here are a few wildcrafting tips my herbalist friend, Heidi Berkovitz and I put together for a Spring Wild Foods class in NC, and several recipes that include some of my favorite wild spring greens. They will support you to harvest consciously and inspire ways to enjoy the harvest.
Enjoy!!!

Wildcrafting Tips

Do not wildcraft from polluted areas

Do not harvest from chemically sprayed lawns or other contaminated areas (roadsides are debatable)

Positively ID plant before ingesting

Harvest only healthy plants

Wear gloves when appropriate

Make sure you have permission to harvest from the site you are on

Ask your friends and neighbors what weeds they want eradicated from their yard and garden, and go harvest till your hearts content!

Be conscious that you are taking from a living organism

Have respect for the plant and the surrounding environment

Ask permission

Leave an offering: Tobacco, strand of hair or a silent thank you

Make sure there are more of the same kind of plants around it.

Do not over harvest. Never clean out an entire patch.

When clipping small branches from trees always clip them just on the outside of the nodule, the same way you would prune a tree, so that it will grow more branches.

Pinch or cut off only a few selected leaves per plant, right at the nodules, so that more of the plant can continue to grow.

Leave an area as beautiful as, or better than, you found it.

Do not gather endangered plants. Visit United Plant Savers at www.unitedplantsavers.org

Get to know an area throughout the seasons. Watch those plants throughout the yearly cycle. Get to know them in every stage of their growth.

Take a class so someone local and knowledgeable can make your first introduction to the plant

Different parts of the plant offers different medicine and food at different times of the year.

Learn more about it with your field guide, getting familiar with it’s taste and appearance at different times of the year.

Some spring greens have a slightly sour taste in the spring, but turn more bitter as they get older. If you know that plant from your spring hike, and you know it is the same plant even though it has a different taste you can enjoy it with confidence and receive it’s benefits for that season.

Building a relationship with the plants in this way attunes you to them and makes it easy to wildcraft throughout the year.

Chickweed

Chickweed is great as an addition to green salads. Eat as much raw as possible this way combined with other spring greens such as young lamb’s quarters leaves, mint, arugula, wild chives, sweet cicely, cochani, violet leaves and flowers, field cress, young baby spinach, sheep sorrel. Lightly dressed with fresh lemon juice or light vinegar and good olive oil makes a very flavorful salad with a lot of life force energy. The younger the chickweed the more tender it will be, but it can be eaten even while flowering.

Directions:
Gather chickweed that has not yet flowered. Cut with knife toward top of plants, so you get a nice clean top. Do not pull plant out by roots. Do the same with mint. Rinse in colander and spin dry in salad spinner.

Toast walnuts on sheet pan in 350 degree oven just until you can smell them. About 10 minutes.

While processing drizzle in a little olive oil until it becomes blended. Do not over blend. Thin if needed with small amount of water. This should be done fairly quickly so as not to over process walnuts.

Chicory

Chicory and dandelion leaves are interchangeable in recipes. They have a similar bitter flavor that is excellent steamed, sautéed, or chopped and added to soups. Young chicory leaves, same as dandelion, are good raw in salads as well. Older leaves can be boiled first, discarding water.

This is a good recipe for older chicory leaves. This would also be good with wild mushrooms sauteed first with the garlic, then add blanched chicory leaves to the saute’.

Garlic Braised Chicory

Directions:
Wash chicory. Cook in an 8-quart pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water), uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well.
Dry pot, then heat oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Cook garlic stirring, until golden, about 1 minute.
Add chicory, stirring to coat. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of liquid has evaporated, 3 to 5 minutes. Salt and white pepper to taste. Toss with a little olive oil.

Dandelion

Mediterranean Steamed Dandelion Leaves

Dandelion leaves can be substituted with chicory leaves, yellow dock leaves, lamb’s quarters, nettles, and wild mustard greens. This is a good general healthy way to prepare wild spring greens. If lemon is not available, a little apple cider vinegar is a good substitute.

Directions:
Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a steamer with a tight fitting lid.
Roughly chop the greens.
Add dandelion greens to steamer basket and steam covered for about 3-5 minutes, until tender.
Slightly press out excess water from greens with the back of a spoon and toss with rest of ingredients.
Serves 4 as a side dish

Cooking Tip: Make sure you don’t over greens. They should still be bright green when done. Otherwise they turn a dull color, and aren’t as flavorful.

Curly Dock/Yellow Dock

Dock leaves can be tough and usually have a fair amount of oxalic acid as they age, so it is preferable to not eat them raw unless very young and tender. However, if you boil in salted water for a few minutes first, discard water, press dry, it can be cooked and used the same as the other wild green leaves such as dandelion, chicory, lamb’s quarters. It is best eaten in the early spring when the young leaves are tender. They have a slightly lemony flavor.

Directions:
Bring water and vinegar to a fast simmer in a skillet large enough to fit eggs. Do Not add salt to simmering water. Make sure there is enough water to cover eggs.
While water is coming to a simmer, sauté sliced leeks in olive oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Add garlic slices and continue to sauté stirring constantly for another minute.
Add curly dock leaves, broth, and simmer covered on medium low heat for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
When done season with salt and pepper.
Poach eggs until desired doneness. This will take about 5 minutes, or just until the white is set and the yolk has filmed over. Remove from vinegar water with a slotted spoon, and place on top of greens. You may want to lay the spoon with the egg on a towel briefly after removing egg from water. This allows the towel to absorb some of the poaching water, and it won’t dilute the flavor of your greens.
Serves 4

Nettles

Nettles are best gathered before they flower and go to seed. If you clip the tops of the plant off at the center stem it will branch out with new growth and you can get more cuttings before flowering. You can harvest leaves all summer. Let it go to seed in late summer, early fall so it can complete it’s natural cycle.

Rubber gloves are an ideal way to handle nettle stems as you harvest. I cut the stem from the plant, hold it in one hand and clip the leaves over a colander with the other. Rinse leaves in the colander. You have removed most of the sting with this clipping as much of it is in the stems. However, once nettle leaves are crushed, dried or cooked all the sting is completely gone. Making nettle pesto is possible with raw leaves because chopping them in the food processor accomplishes this. So you get the nutrients of the raw leaves, which are substantial.

Directions:
Sauté ginger and onion over medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add garlic and continue to sauté for another minute. Add broth, and bring to a boil on high heat.
Once it comes to a boil reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered for another 5 minutes. Add potatoes and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 more minutes.
Add rest of ingredients and cook another 5 minutes. If you simmer for a longer time for extra flavor and richness, add a little more broth.
Serves 4

Cooking Tips: This soup can be made with other wild spring greens as well, such as dandelion, lamb’s quarters in late spring, yellow dock, chicory, etc. You can also add ramps, wild garlic for extra flavor. Play with this recipe, it is flexible and a great early spring cleansing soup. Also, this soup is better after it has had a chance to sit for awhile.

Violet Leaves

Violets have exceptionally delicious leaves and flowers. They are abundant early to late spring. The flowers have a mild flavor and add beautiful color to salads. The leaves are mild tasting at first and end with a little peppery taste. They are fantastic eaten raw in salads. I have not found a more suitable way to enjoy these young tender leaves and flowers.

Directions:
Place beans in large bowl. Pour enough cold water over to cover; let soak overnight.
Drain beans; place in heavy large pot and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until beans are just tender, about 45 minutes. Add greens to pot; cook until tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain; set aside.
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in same pot over medium heat. Add celery, carrots, and onion. Sauté until onion is translucent, about 6 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes, and bean mixture. Reduce heat to low. Simmer 20 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Cover and let soup rest 15 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with cheese and drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon oil.

Wild Ginger

Spring Cleaning Tonic

This is a good tonic that you can drink all through spring. Go out in nature and gather as much of the greens as possible. Not only is this a good liver tonic, but gathering wild greens out in nature gets you in touch with nature’s reflection of spring energy.

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until leaves are liquefied. Allow to stand for an hour or more and strain. Discard the solids and drink the refreshing liquid.

Sweet Cicely/Anise Root

Sweet Cicely is excellent added to fresh green salads. I prefer using the flavorful green leaves of the plant in the spring. The bulb can also be incorporated into dishes, but better used later in the season as the energy of the plant moves downward. The leaves have a delicate flavor so make sure other ingredients don’t overpower it.

Berries Infused with Sweet Cicely

Pick wild berries, or get them from your local farmer’s market. Spring is a good time to harvest fresh strawberries. Make an infusion with the leaves of sweet cicely by removing just the leaves from the plant, rinse thoroughly and add to water. The amount depends on the amount of berries you have picked, approximately 1/4 cup liquid to 1 1/2 cups berries.

Use plenty of leaves for flavoring. Add raw sugar, honey, or agave according to how sweet you like things, and simmer these leaves in the sweetened water for about 20 minutes.

Strain out leaves and continue to simmer until liquid has slightly thickened. Let cool to warm temperature and pour over bowl of berries and let cool.

Ramps

Both the bulb and green leaves are delicious and can be used in dishes. There is a short season in early spring before the trees leaf out. So it is good to cook with them as often as possible in place of scallions, leeks, spring onions, even garlic. Use them abundantly while they last. They are so loved that gourmet stores are carrying them now while in season.

Wild Ramp Goat Cheese Sauce

Directions:
Sauté ramps in olive oil medium sauté pan for 5 minutes stirring frequently.
Add stock and cheese and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Blend in blender and season with salt and pepper. Make sure you don’t fill blender more than half full. Start on low speed so sauce doesn’t erupt and burn you.

Wild Salad Greens

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Soak flax seeds in ¼ cup water while preparing rest of ingredients, about 10 minutes.
3. Grind rest of seeds and nuts in food processor until well ground. Add flax seeds with
water and continue to grind for another 30 seconds. Press evenly into a 9 inch tart pan
and bake 15 minutes.
5. While tart shell is baking wash and chop ramps.
6, Saute’ ramps in a small amount of olive oil for about 5 minutes.
7. Remove tart shell from oven and spread cooked ramps evenly over bottom of shell.
Whisk together eggs, and a little salt and pepper. Pour over ramps and top with goat
cheese evenly over entire tart. Returrn tart to oven. Bake for another 30 minutes.
Toss salad greens with a light coating of lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper.
Serve a wedge of tart on bed of salad greens.
Serves 4

Lightly grill 6 of the ramps. Cut the remaining ramps into 1-inch pieces. Add the chopped ramps to the soup, season with salt and pepper, and simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree the soup until smooth.

Ladle the soup into shallow bowls, garnish with the grilled ramps and the parsley. Serve with crusty bread.

Makes 6 servings

Wild Mint

Wild mint plants always smell like mint and have square stems, so they are easy to identify. Use the leaves as you would with any mint. It is a good plant to dry as well for tea.

Directions:
1. Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a steamer with a tight fitting lid.
Steam carrots in basket until slightly crunchy inside, (el dente). Depending on thickness of
the carrot pieces this takes about 7-10 minutes.
3. Chop rest of ingredients and toss with carrots when done.
Serves 6

Cooking Tip: Make sure you remove carrots from the steamer while they are still bright in color and a little crisp inside for the best flavor.

Fiddlehead Fern

In selecting fiddleheads look for a tight coil and only an inch or two of stem beyond the coil. There is a brown papery chaff that surrounds the fiddlehead on the plant. The outside of the coil should have an intricate pattern of tiny leaves arranged along the sides of the spiral. Size of the coil should be 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Larger size is acceptable as long as they are tightly coiled. Common bracken and other ferns also produce tightly coiled new growth in the Spring but none of these are suitable for eating.
If more than 2 inches of stem remains attached beyond the coiled part of the fiddlehead snap or cut it off. If any of the paper chaff remains on the fiddleheads you may rub it off by hand. Since the chaff is very light, you may want to clean off the chaff outdoors by fanning them or lightly shaking them in an open wire salad basket.
After the chaff is removed wash the fiddleheads in several changes of cold water to remove any dirt or grit. Drain the fiddleheads completely. Use them fresh, and soon after harvest.
If you must store fresh Fiddleheads keep well cooled (35 F) and tightly wrapped to prevent drying out. If you have stored them, you may wish to trim the stem again just before use since the cut end will darken in storage. They may be kept in refrigeration for about 10 days, although flavor will be best if used as soon as possible after harvest. Good fiddleheads should have a distinctly crisp texture, both raw and after brief cooking.

Clean and rinse fiddleheads. Blanch fiddleheads in boiling salted water for 1 minute. Remove from heat, drain and rinse in cold water to cool them. Clean and cut up peppers, wild leeks and fresh herbs.
Pour vinegar over cooled fiddleheads in a non-reactive container. Add cut up peppers, wild leeks, herbs, sugar and salt. Stir to wet all ingredients. Add Olive Oil and stir again. Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving. Can be kept in refrigerator for awhile and will still remain crisp.

Sheep Sorrel

Sheep Sorrel Sauce

This is a quick and delicious sauce that can be put on many dishes for a zesty, herbal taste. The tangy flavor of sorrel makes this particularly versatile. Sheep Sorrel is available all year round in most areas. In the spring it is fabulous raw in salads. As it gets older throughout the year try cooking it, and adding it to cooked dishes. Try it on poached fish, steamed butternut squash, braised red cabbage, baked potato, or anything else that comes to your mind. The list is endless.

Morels

You can saute’ them, bake them, or include them in stews, soups, casseroles, but they need to be cooked for at least 15 minutes. Morels, or any wild mushroom for that matter should never be eaten raw. When hunting morels make sure you have a positive ID. The cap, honeycombed is contiguous with the stalk, so if you cut one of these mushrooms in half lengthwise it will be hollow from cap to stem with no division between the cap and stem.

Directions:
Pour 2/3 cup hot water over porcini in a heatproof cup and let stand until softened, about 10 minutes. Lift porcini out of water, squeezing excess liquid back into cup, and rinse well to remove any grit. Coarsely chop porcini. Pour soaking liquid through a paper-towel-lined sieve into a glass measure and reserve.
Meanwhile, bring broth and remaining 2 cups hot water to a simmer. Keep at a bare simmer, covered.
Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté onions, garlic and morels, stirring, until browned, about 7 minutes.
Add porcini and reserved soaking liquid to skillet and boil, stirring, 1 minute. Add rice and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until absorbed.
Stir in 1/2 cup simmering broth mixture and cook at a strong simmer, stirring frequently, until broth is absorbed. Continue simmering and adding broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently and letting each addition become absorbed before adding the next, until rice is tender but still al dente and creamy (it should be the consistency of a thick soup), 18 minutes. (There will be leftover broth.)
Stir in zest, remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, parmesan, parsley, and pepper to taste. (If necessary, thin risotto with some of remaining broth.) Serve immediately.

Serves 4 (main course) or 6 to 8 (side dish).

Wild Garlic

This is similar to field garlic, but the laves are flat instead of round. Both the leaves and bulb can be used. Peel the bulb of excess dirty skin before using.

Directions:
Debone trout, remove head, and cut in half lengthwise for two fillets.
Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt & white pepper.
Place on sheet pan skin side down, and set aside
Preheat oven to 350
Place pesto ingredients into food processor and pulse until pesto consistency. You may need to add a little extra lemon juice or water to taste. Set aside
While trout is baking sauté shallots in a little butter.
Add white wine and reduce to half.
Whisk in rest of butter, salt and white pepper
Place baked trout onto plate, surround with butter sauce and place a spoonful of pesto on top.
Serves 2

Elder Flower

Sparkling Elderflower Wine

10 bunches elder flowers (an umbel is a flower cluster all starting from the same point, literally a little umbrella)
1lemon
350 ml water
8 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons honey
1 lemon, juice of
Directions
Rinse the elderberry flowers- they must be just in bloom.
Cut the lemon into thin slices and mix with the flowers and the remaining ingredients in a reasonably large container.
Stir.
Cover the container and leave in a warm place.
The juice can be drunk after 24 hours.
If necessary add lemon and honey to taste.
After 2-3 days the drink will begin to effervesce.
Then sieve, put into screwtop bottles and store in a dark room.
The juice will turn into sparkling wine in around 4 weeks.

The verdant colors of “new” at this time of year brings such excitement of potential creativity, and the birthing of a fresh start. My heart just sings, jumps a beat and expands when I am surrounded by the delicate greens of new plant life.

In Chinese medicine spring is the wood element and the color associated with it is green. Any wonder? The liver and gallbladder are the organ systems related to this element that embodies the rebirth time of the year.

Have you ever noticed when you walk or drive into a green area in nature how the temperature immediately cools down? Do you think it is a coincidence that these new fresh green plants that are bursting forth in the spring support the liver and gallbladder?

If they have a cooling affect in the natural world does it not make sense they would have a cooling affect on your liver? It is very common for our liver to heat up, especially during stressful times.

Your liver needs the support to “stay cool” in these stressful times. Think green. Think newly fresh, young greens. There are a multitude of fresh green plants popping up everywhere both in the garden and in the wild to support your liver.

Here are a couple pesto recipes that I designed specifically for this purpose. Not only are they good medicine for your liver, but they are delicious. For those of you that live in an area that nettles and chickweed grow you couldn’t have better allies. I have shared with many gardeners who thought they were plagued with chickweed taking over their gardens in the spring that is the best crop you could have right now. Not only does it support you greatly in the spring, but as it dies off it feeds the soil. Simply turn it under.

Enjoy these spring recipes. They are from my book, Divine Nourishment. If you already have my book this is a friendly reminder to pull it out and receive the benefits of the spring chapter.

If you are in a cleansing mode leave out the parmesan and walnuts.

Enjoy!

CHEESE-FREE PESTO VERDE

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

2 TBS fresh sage, chopped

2 TBS fresh oregano, chopped

1/2 cup scallion tops, chopped

4 cloves garlic

3 TBS chopped walnuts

1 TBS balsamic vinegar

2 TBS lemon juice

2 TBS water

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

Blend pesto ingredients in food processor, or blender. You will have to put 1/2 the chopped herbs and all the liquid except olive oil in first. As you blend it some, then you can put in rest of herbs and drizzle olive oil while blending a little at a time at end. Store in air-tight container in refrigerator. Yieldsapproximately 1 cup.

WILD CHICKWEED & MINT PESTO

Ingredients:

Amounts are approximations, as it is according to personal taste.

Ingredients:

4 cups packed wild Chickweed

1/4 cup wild mint

2 TBS chopped wild garlic

3/4 cup walnuts

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

Drizzle of water

Salt/white pepper to taste

Directions:

Gather chickweed that has not yet flowered. Cut with knife toward top of plants, so you get a nice clean top. Do not pull plant out by roots. Do the same with mint. Rinse in colander and spin dry in salad spinner.

Toast walnuts on sheet pan in 350 degree oven just until you can smell them. About 10 minutes.

While processing drizzle in a little olive oil until it becomes blended. Do not over blend. Thin if needed with small amount of water. This should be done fairly quickly so as not to over process walnuts.